John Pletz On Technology

Groupon revs up mobile search for iPhone, Android

Groupon Inc. has launched new versions of its iPhone and Android mobile apps that put more focus on search.

It's another sign of the evolution of the company's business to rely less heavily on emailed daily deals and get customers to come to Groupon.

One of the themes Groupon has been peddling to Wall Street is that, with more than 200 million users, it is creating a broader e-commerce platform not unlike Amazon.com.

Investors aren't fully convinced that Groupon can execute its vision to be one of the top mobile-commerce platforms. But they're intrigued. The stock is trading at about $6.45, up 42 percent since CEO Andrew Mason was fired Feb. 28. But it's got a long way to go to return to an IPO price of $20 per share. The company is scheduled to report earnings May 8.

Groupon has been shifting to a concept of a marketplace in which users can search for deals from individual merchants, rather than relying on emails. The marketplace features more than 37,000 deals. It also solves a problem of how to get merchants to keep coming back.

David Katz

BY POPULAR DEMAND

"Search has been one of our most requested features for a long time," says David Katz, Groupon's vice president of mobile, based in Palo Alto, Calif. "The biggest factor is the growth of our deal marketplace. As deals have gone up, the way users can use the app has changed.

"Over the long term, the combination of search functionality and more deals gives users more reason to use the apps and site."

Today, about 40 percent of Groupon purchases are made on mobile devices. Mr. Katz says Groupon will continue to refine mobile search and add more features as mobile usage grows.

"Mobile search involves where the user is," he says. "As it develops over time, we're going to want to be smart about time of day, day of week," he says.

Groupon also added functionality customized for Android tablets. "We're starting to see real growth in the Android tablet market both in the U.S. and internationally," Mr. Katz says.